Malaysian Airlines lost contact with flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200ER from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Reports from Ukraine now say that the flight was shot down. In an eerie coincidence, today is the anniversary of the crash of TWA flight 800.

Malaysia Airlines confirms it received notification from Ukrainian ATC that it had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT) at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Flight MH17 operated on a Boeing 777 departed Amsterdam at 12.15pm (Amsterdam local time) and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10 am (Malaysia local time) the next day.

The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew onboard.

The flight was also a code-share with KLM, who has released this statement:

Although not yet officially confirmed by Malaysia Airlines, it is with great regret that KLM has learnt about the possible incident with flight MH17, codeshare KL4103, of Malaysia Airlines from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

UPDATE 12:32PM EDT —Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the transponder signal was lost as the plane was about to cross into Russia.

UPDATE 12:44PM EDT — Boeing has issued a statement on the incident: "Our thoughts and prayers are with those on board the Malaysia Airlines airplane lost over Ukrainian airspace, as well as their families and loved ones."

UPDATE 12:54PM EDT — German airline Lufthansa has announced they will stop flying over the region. US airlines were given the directive to avoid the region back in April of this year.

UPDATE: 2:14PM EDT — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says no current airspace restrictions were in effect for MH17's flight path.

UPDATE 2:25PM EDT - According to Reuters, pro-Russian separatists claim to have found the "black box" recorder. NBC's Brian Williams points out that this crash investigation will be happening in an active war zone. The debris field spreads over an estimated 9-mile area, indicating the plane broke up at a high altitude.